I was wondering if there was a very simple and free virtual machine that would allow you to boot from a folder or disk image that couldn’t damage my hard disk. I am using a MacBook and am looking into operating system programming. I found a tutorial on the internet that looked promising. I want to try this but using a VM instead of actually booting from a disk. If I made a folder or disk image containing the boot.bin file and wanted to try the OS I made (while booting from a folder or disk image, not a disk), is there a VM that would let me do it? I have no previous experience with virtual machines. I also want to be sure my hard disk would not be damaged.
I was wondering if there was a very simple and free virtual machine that
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If you can make a cdfs .ISO, any VM technology on the market today could do what you ask. VirtualBox, KVM, Xen, VMware, VMware Fusion (on the macbook), etc. Not sure if Parallels can work for you, though.
VMware’s products can also boot from floppy images, which are simply binary blobs (for the most part).
On the Mac I think you’re limited to VMware Fusion (maybe Parallels), but on Linux you have so many options.